2 Communism in Crisis

Domestic and foreign problems of the Brezhnev era, economic and political stagnation, Afghanistan

2.4.1 Leonid Brezhnev and the Domestic Problems

The Economy

Leonid Brezhnev came into power in the USSR in 1964

He combined the positions of General Secretary and chairman of the Presidium

He came into power at a time where the USSR had managed to industrialise, increase its arms and develop new technology however it had failed in the production of consumer goods and agriculture

Standards of living which had previously been increasing were starting to decrease again

A lot of money was being spent on the military and the space programme

Brezhnev wanted to increase consumer goods and agriculture by putting in place reforms that would use the market force to increase these however he was prevented from doing so as some feared that these would lead to a tendency towards capitalism

However he allowed farmers to work on state owned plots

Previously Collectivization had been the policy

Collectivization was an agricultural policy in which individual landholders had to give up their land ownership and combine this land with those of other landholders to create large farms

By allowing farmers to work on state owned plots this gave them the motivation to produce more as they could keep or sell the surplus

However when living standards did not change production decreased

Brezhnev tried to increase production in the ninth and tenth five year plans but this was not with much success

Consumer goods were only largely available on the black market

In 1975 the USSR suffered from another poor harvest and so Brezhnev had to increase agricultural imports to keep the citizens fed

In the 1970s the rest of the world was suffering from a petroleum shortage but due to the focus on consumer goods and agriculture the USSR did not manage to increase its production of petroleum and so failed to benefit from the high demand

The people started to criticise the government

Citizens vs Government

Censorship and repression where still in place in the USSR

However citizens started to voice their opinions and put forward their own ideas as they where worried that a Stalin style regime which had been savagely violent would return

Intellects where starting to publicly criticise the government

Solzhenitsyn published The Gulag Archipelago which was an autobiographical account of how the citizens had been treated in the expanding networks of camps

However he was exiled for his work in 1974

Samizdat and Tamizdat were used to voice opinion and spread ideas

Samizdat where self published pamphlets or articles that where illegally copied and distributed

Tamizdat was similar to Samizdat but the pamphlets and articles where first published abroad and smuggled back into the USSR

Some of these became journals and gained many followers

There was also pressure from abroad to allow the Soviet Jews to leave the USSR and move to Israel if the Soviet Jews wanted to do so

In addition the Baltic States which had been taken by force into USSR protested the invasion of ethnic Russians into their areas, these states wanted independence (Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania)

Politics

Brezhnev did not have much interest in reforming the government or the Partystructure

It became more and more apparent that there was a need for a reform as the leaders where ageing and starting to die

In 1974 Brezhnev spoke about "stability of cadres" and assured the older stagnant party members that they would not lose their positions

Workers also realised that they would not lose their jobs due to poor productivity

Even though this bought about a sense of security it had devastating effects on the economy

2.4.2 Foreign Reforms and Problems

Brezhnev Doctrine

The Soviet Union wanted to come to an agreement on arms limitation with the USA as it wanted to limit the possibility of war

However Brezhnev's main interest was to maintain a communist regime

When the Czechoslovak government introduced reforms that went against the communist regime Soviet troops invaded the country and reversed the reforms

In November 1968 the Brezhnev Doctrine

In his speech Brezhnev made clear that all communist regimes were to remain communist and he would not let them be overthrown internally nor externally

The Western powers criticised this however they did not offer any support for these states

Agreement with the USA

Due to the economic situation in the USSR Brezhnev wanted to come to an agreement with the USA on arm limitations

This also showed the USA that the USSR wanted to avoid nuclear war

In 1969 the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks began between the Brezhnev and the USA president Nixon

In May 1972 the USA and the USSR came to an agreement on arm limitations

The Helsinki Final Act in 1975 finalised the post-war frontiers in Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviets agreed to comply with international conventions on human rights

Involvement in Africa and the Solidarity Movement

The Portuguese withdrew from their African colonies after the Portuguese revolution in 1974

This resulted in civil war in Mozambique and Angola

Marxists groups recruited the assistance of first the Cubans and then the Soviets

The Soviets supported the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola

They also supported the Frelimo in Mozambique since the 1960s

The Soviets also helped put an end to regime of Haile Selassie in Ethiopia and put in place a communist revolutionary government

The Somali government was against this it was driven out by the Ethiopians who had received arms from the Soviets

The Solidarity movement started in the late 1970s in Poland

The USSR wanted to invoke the Brezhnev Doctrine however due to its involvement in Afghanistan it was reluctant to do so

The USSR's Involvement in Afghanistan

Since the late 19th century the USSR had intervened in Afghanistan

The USSR wanted to compete with Britain for power in Afghanistan

The Soviets had sent military support to the country to aid the removal of the British control

The USSR military had trained Afghan officers which made them supportive of the Marxist cause in their own country

The Afghan army took power in 1978 and killed the president and prime minister

Nur Muhammad Taraki became the president of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) and put in power the Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA)

The new government wanted to put in place economic and social reforms to try and secularise and modernise Afghanistan

The USSR signed an agreement with Afghanistan in December 1978 which stated that the USSR agreed to give military support to the Afghan government in Kabul if the government asked for it

The Afghan government became more and more reliant on Soviet support which weakened the moral authority of the government

Attacks against the government increased especially by religious groups

The reforms where imposed through violence and so the civilians were very hostile towards the government, conflict started to erupt

Village and religious leaders were imprisoned or killed for protesting against the policies of the government

Those who were able went into exile abroad, the lower class civilians escaped to Pakistan in refugee camps

It is estimated that 27000 political prisoners were killed by the PDPA

The Mujahideen (rebel forces) started to object to the PDPA and the role of religious bodies in Afghanistan was starting to become more important

Those opposition to the PDPA started to attack Soviet leaders as well

100 Soviet advisors were killed in March 1979 by members of the Afghan army that had mutinied in the city of Herat

The PDPA reacted by attacking and executing 24000 people in the city

In 1979 Taraki was overthrown by Hafizullah Amin which made the situation even more chaotic

The USSR invaded Afghanistan in December 1979 and cited the Brezhnev Doctrine as a reason

The official reason was that the PDPA asked for support from the USSR to stop the Mujahideen from taking power

The main problem was that the USSR did not have a clear aim

Within the Soviet government there where disputes on why to proceed and how to proceed

The KGB seemed to want a limited operation which would stabilise the situation and prevent it from spreading into surrounding countries

The defence ministry wanted to overthrow the PDPA to prevent Pakistan or Iran from invading Afghanistan

There was worry that Amin and Taraki had been involved in pro-US activities and that this would lead to the end of socialism in Afghanistan

There was 70000 Soviet Troops in Afghanistan by the 27th of December with still no clear objectives on how to proceed

The Soviet position was weak as even though they controlled the cities, the rebels which were being supported by the US controlled the countryside

The Soviet army executed Amin and all those who saw the assassination

Amin was replaced by Babrak Karmal who was another leader of the PDPA

This was the start of a ten year intervention in Afghanistan which cost the USSR many lives and billions of dollars

The Soviet citizens where against this intervention and it also resulted in international condemnation

The US limited grain sales to the USSR and also boycotted the 1980 summer Olympics which were due to be held in Moscow

The rebels received the support from the US and President Carter allowed the CIA to conduct operations in Afghanistan

By 1982 the USSR realised that it could not win the war in Afghanistan but it refused to admit defeat

Instead it continued a war that was costly and very unpopular as it had invoked the Brezhnev Doctrine and could not withdraw

2.4.3 Chernenko and Andropov

As Brezhnev got older and weaker he relied more and more on his protégé Konstantin Chernenko to lead the country

It was thought that Chernenko would succeed Brezhnev however when Brezhnev died in November 1982 he was succeeded by Yuri Andropov

Andropov was a former KGB leader and a Central Committee member

He managed to outmanoeuver Chernenko and became the leader of the USSR

Andropov wanted to change the USSR's economic stagnation

He tried to nullify the "stability of cadres" to improve productivity

He tried to answer the problem of economic stagnation by putting in places policies which stated that those illegally absent from work would be arrested

He also closed down most of the Soviet space program in 1983 to try and cut down expenses

He wanted to get rid of Brezhnev's and Chernenko's followers and replace them with political elites who were loyal to him and were willing to encourage change within the economy

He wanted to replace the older Party members with younger ones with the help of Mikhail Gorbachev

Foreign problems which had started during the Brezhnev era continued

The situation in Afghanistan worsened

The relation between the US and the USSR was already bad but it was made worse when in September 1983 the Soviets shot down a Korean Airlines flight that had strayed into Soviet airspace

In 1983 Andropov's health deteriorated and he stopped appearing in public

He wanted Gorbachev to succeed him however when Andropov died in 1984 he was succeeded by Chernenko

There were not many changes under Chernenko's leadership, foreign and domestic policies stayed the same

Chernenko's health deteriorated quite fast and he needed to rely more and more on his deputy Gorbachev

When Chernenko died in March 1985 it marked the end of the Brezhnev era